Thursday, July 27, 2006

Today is a special day! My email add niner727@yahoo.com is now on its third year. Let me tell you how it was conceived.

Niner is the reverse form of my name, Renin. Paula, a good friend of mine, gave me this nick name way back 1999 (we were first year high school studes then). I can’t remember how she came up with this. But I can clearly visualize my bliss upon knowing this tag. Some of my friends started to call me niner since then.

727 reminds me of July 27, 2003. The date is memorable because it of my “first” that happened that day. Here they are.

* It was the first time I went home from school at 9pm. I attended a “Pluma: creative writing workshop” which was organized by the school publication editorial board.

* It was the first time I came to know Ulango, the boundery of Calamba and Tanauan. Due to the heavy traffic from Tanaun to Sto. Tomas, that resulted form the red alert security raised by the AFP and PNP, the jeepney driver decided to take the Ulango-Calamba route.

* It was the first time I was caught in a traffic caused by a mutiny. Let me remind you that Oakwood mutiny occurred on this date.

* It was the first time I have a good chat with Engr. Robert de Luna* who happened to be my co-passenger.

I chose to have an email add that rings a bell to me whenever I use it. Niner727 fitted and still fits this! ^_^

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* Engr. Robert de Luna is a professor her in FAIth from AY2003-2004 to AY 2005-2006.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Ms. Jen announced that submission our respective final topics for Research1 are due today. Murmurs filled the Psych lab for a minute or two, then silence. We can’t and didn’t raise an appeal or we’ll be behind schedule. This is a no! no! because the due date of Chapter 1 is before midterm exams

But before we complied, I asked Ms. Jen if she can help us determine the more feasible research topic between our two choices. She agreed. So, July and I immediately went to her desk and presented our two choices:

She commented that both assertiveness and self regard is incorporated in the intrapersonal skills. She implied that we better have intrapersonal skill as our independent variable. We accepted, knowing that doing so will be helpful in terms of gathering related literature and studies. She also reminded us to complete the W’s in writing the research topic. July and I came up with this:

* CORRELATION BETWEEN INTRAPERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS OFSELECTED SECOND YEAR TERIARY SYTUDENTS OF FAITH A.Y. 2006-2007.

The rest of the class consulted Ms. Jen before they wrote their topics in the master list. Before I jot down our research topic, I requested July to show our edited topic first. It was then that a conflict rose. Our topic is similar to Yen and Karen’s topic. Ms. Jen told us (July and I) to change our topic. She suggested something about birth order. At first I was annoyed. But the feeling easily subsided. I then wrote a topic similar to the one I had last June 20.So here’s our new topic:

* CORRELATION BETWEEN BIRTH ORDER AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OFSELECTED SECOND YEAR TERIARY SYTUDENTS OF FAITH A.Y. 2006-2007.

July and I talked about it. Why do we have to change topic, so and so... Sort of sour grapping. Then July uttered, “I believe that God has a purpose.” I was enlightened. I decided to set aside my negative feeling.

Class was dismissed.

I was attending to Emy’s concern when Yen approached me. I told her, " I don’t need your explanation. I can’t do anything about it. July and I have a topic already. I don’t want to dwell on this matter anymore."I became mean, or rude in taking my side because Yen kept on trying to speak her side which I don’t want to hear anymore. As I have said earlier, I don’t want to dwell on this matter anymore. I shut my mouth to end the discussion.

To my astonishment, Emy cried as Yen walked out of the scene (and talked to Karen).I asked her. “Why are you crying?”She answered in between sobs “Coz you were arguing.” I let her cry for a moment and explained that we’re not really arguing, Yen simply wanted to speak her side which I also simply don’t want to hear anymore.

My friends were actually too affected or should I say, they were emphatic to me and July. I am thankful for that. But to leave this stuff behind ---to bury the hatchet and not to repress it --- is the best thing to do.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I am too exhausted memorizing this and that for our Industrial Psychology and Office Software Packages prelim exams.*Sigh!* You read it write, I AM MEMORIZING! I'm trapped i a rote learning routine both by chance and by choice. I am not comfortable with cramming, but I can't do anything about that now. I'll do my best next term so I'll not catch myself dead in a situation like this.

Now, all I need is a break! I have been thinking that if I will not pause for a while, all my neurons will drain. So here I am having a break by writing this entry and blog hopping on the side.

Anyway, I have a brief talk with kuya Marvin (a library staff whom I consider a buddy) a couple of minutes ago.

I asked him the title and the writer of today’s young blood article.“ABC. --- La Salle.” He promptly answered.

Kuya Marvin's encouragement rekindled my long-time dream of having one of my article published in the Young Blood column. I think nothing’s wrong if I gave it a try. I guess its about time for me to set aside my neurotic thoughts of being rejected. What I have to do now (as in ASAP) is to grab an interesting topic and burn my brows while scribbling my pen and pad. Who knows this may give me a break... ^_^

Sunday, July 16, 2006

The class’ consensus on our Research1 (Thesis Proposal) session last June 20, is to have a thesis by dyad. We decided to use the draw lots methods to determine our other-half with exemption to are Cel and Jen who asserted to be a pair and to Love and Chester who were both absent. Here are the six pairs: ate Cel and jen, Chester and Love, Emy and Liz, Hanzel and Sarah, July and Renin, and Karen and Yen.

Ms. Jen Semaña, our professor, emphasized that it is our discretion to have either descriptive or experimental thesis as long as we are really interested with the topic we’re going to study. She mentioned that her decision is in opposition to Sir Dan’s* request to impose experimental research. After her short narrative, she told us to sit beside our partner --- which we immediately did --- and then asked each of us to write at least three thesis title with their corresponding explanation. We raised an appeal to do it in the next meeting but our request was denied. We spent less than an hour thinking, thinking, and thinking of thesis topics. Some of my classmates were able to beat the required number of thesis titles; others even exceeded it, and few who did not.

I was able to come up with only two proposed titles. The first one is “The correlation of birth order and separation anxiety to the academic performance of First year college students.” The other on is “The correlation of birth order and communication style in the interpersonal relationship to grade school students.” I find these two topics uninteresting, so I told July that we better we’ll study the one she proposed entitled “why is it hard to break bad habits?” I just added two independent variables and one dependent variable and came up with a two (2) by two (2) factorial design thesis proposal entitled “ Effects of affirmation and appraisal in the motivation of students in breaking their bad habits” We’ll study the effects of affirmation and appraisal independently and their interaction, if there is any.

Though decided with our topic, we still need to resolve the three shortcomings we’ve identified. First, we have to find more theories and related studies that will guide us in the manipulation and control of our variables. Second, we need to identify the specific bad habit that will serve as our dependent variable. We are choosing between smoking and drinking. Lastly, we need to find a valid test that will measure our construct. I think this is the most tedious part.

I am aware that every moment counts. This one should always be inculcated in our coconut shell since the submission of chapter 1 will be before the midterm exam. Awe should exert a lot of effort to meet the deadline.

I know we’ll make it with God’s help!

“Kaya namin to ni July! Kaya naming AB Pasaway to!

---------------------* Sir Dan is the Psychology Dept. chair person form Nov. 2004 - June 2006. he resigned to live a life in London.